Jean-Claude Donzé (born 2 May 1948) is a retired Swiss football executive, club manager and former

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

Biography

Jean-Claude Donzé started his football career as goalkeeper in the

Swiss Super League The Super League (also known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a professional association football league in Switzerland and the highest level of the Swiss football league system. It has been played in its current fo ...

from 1967 to 1979, mostly with

FC Sion Football Club Sion, commonly known as simply FC Sion or Sion, is a Swiss Association football, football club from the city of Sion, Switzerland, Sion. The club was founded in 1909 and play their home matches at the Stade Tourbillon. They have wo ...

. He was named manager of

from 1981 to 1987, where he was the longest-serving head coach in the club's history. In 1988, he was offered to manage

Servette FC Servette FC is a Swiss professional Association football, football club based in Geneva, founded in March 1890 with rugby as its first sporting activity, and named after the Geneva district of the same name. The football section was created on ...

, which he did for two years. He ended his managerial career in 1989. Amongst his successes, Jean-Claude Donzé won three

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup competition that has been organised annually since 1925–26 season by the Swiss Football Association. The Swiss Cup final is usually the most important game of the year with a high attendance. The co ...

finals with

, the first of which as goalkeeper in 1974 and the other two as manager in 1982 and 1986. He totalled 18

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

matches, including a quarter-final with

in 1987 and a round of 16 with

in 1988. He was named Swiss football manager of the year in 1984. Jean-Claude Donzé chaired the Pantalon Club Valais-Sion in 1998-1999. Jean-Claude Donzé subsequently served as vice chair of th
Swiss Football League
from 2013 to 2017. A member of th
Swiss Football League
executive committee since 1995, he held various senior positions, amongst which chair of the competition commission from 1999 to 2005 and the national training commission from 2009 to 2019. He was awarded honorary membership of th
Swiss Football League
in 2017. From 2005 to 2017, he was board member of the

Swiss Football Association The Swiss Football Association (, , , ) is the governing body of football in Switzerland. It organizes the football league, the Swiss Football League and the Switzerland national football team. It is based in Bern. It was formed in 1895, was a ...

. From 2009 to 2019, he served as head of delegation of

Switzerland national under-21 football team The Switzerland national under-21 football team is the national under-21 football team of Switzerland and is controlled by the Swiss Football Association. The team competes in the UEFA European Under-21 Championship, which is held every two ...

, which achieved its best ever result as runner-up at

2011 UEFA European Under-21 Championship The 2011 UEFA European Under-21 Championship was the 18th staging of UEFA's UEFA European Under-21 Championship, European Under-21 Championship. The final tournament was hosted by Denmark between 11 and 25 June 2011. The Danish bid was chosen by ...

. He also served as head of delegation of

Switzerland national football team The Switzerland national football team (, , , , ) represents Switzerland in men's international Association football, football. The national team is controlled by the Swiss Football Association. Switzerland's best performances at the FIFA Worl ...

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

References

1948 births Living people Swiss men's footballers FC La Chaux-de-Fonds players FC Sion players Men's association football goalkeepers Swiss Super League players Swiss football managers FC Sion managers Servette FC managers Swiss sports executives and administrators 20th-century Swiss sportsmen {{Switzerland-footy-goalkeeper-stub